Preview: Genesis Invitational
With all of the Top-6 in the Official World Golf Rankings teeing it up at the exquisite Riviera Country Club for the Genesis Invitational this week, and the margin between them all on those rankings razor thin, there will be drama aplenty on the PGA Tour this week.
Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, John Rahm, Patrick Cantlay and Dustin Johnson are all in attendance, and it is thus tough to envisage a future in which none of them are on the prowl come Sunday. With all of the aforementioned crew on site, accompanied by the likes of Tiger Woods, Xander Schauffele, and Justin Rose, this marks the strongest field of any tournament this year so far.
Casting an eye outside of the World's Top-10 however, viewers will find layers and layers of potential winners at Riviera.
Bubba Watson has won the event three times since 2014, and is showing signs of recapturing his form in 2020.
JB Holmes, the defending champion, has placed inside of the Top-20 in all of his last three events.
Sergio Garcia, Tony Finau, Abraham Ancer, Marc Leishman, Matthew Fitzpatrick... the list of players showing attention-grabbing form in 2020 goes on, and on; how on Earth does anybody pick a winner from this?
It might be worth starting at the top; Rory McIlroy is officially the number one player in the world once more, following a five year absence from the top of the pops. The 2019 PGA Tour Player of the Year leapfrogged Brooks Koepka on Monday, and he'll be out to claim that spot as his own.
Two players can, however, take the crown in the immediate aftermath of Rory's coronation. John Rahm, who is as hot as a bubbling cauldron, and Brooks Koepka, who I would imagine is going to have the golf equivalent of 'court-vision' for the next week.
Rahm doesn't look like stuttering, and certainly has a royal claim to the throne. He hasn't finished outside of the Top-10 in any of his last six starts, including two wins, and two runner-up finishes. Sunday's and Jon Rahm are becoming synonymous with one another, and with the standard of golf, and excitement he brings to the TV screen, that's something we could all get accustomed to.
The other challenger for Rory's belt is the recently toppled number one, Brooks Koepka. If there is anything we know about Brooks, it's that being toppled is not something that sits well with him. Perhaps the most exciting man in golf right now (on and off the course), don't expect Brooks' recent knee injury to hold him back from challenging for his dominion back.
Away from the drama of the World Rankings, several other players fall into the discussion of coming out on top of this star-studded field. With this in mind, what has made a winner at this event in the past?
Riviera CC typically places high stock on driving distance, and relatively little importance on driving accuracy. In other words, bomb and gouger's typically do well, while short and straight players have a historically harder battle. This isn't atypical for most PGA Tour venues.
One component of Riviera CC that does venture from the mean is the significance of a strong short game. Strokes Gained: Around the Green, and Strokes Gained: Putting strongly correlate to overall performance at this event, more so than at other Tour stops.
From looking back at the list of champions at Riviera over the last decade, a common occurrence reveals itself; hitting a high fade off the tee seems to be common trait among winners. JB Holmes, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson all have that shot in the bag.
It will certainly be an entertaining week of golf. Riviera CC is one of the most architecturally interesting courses the professionals will play all year; I could sit and watch them play the famous Par-4 tenth hole for four days straight. With that in mind, who should we expect to challenge for the title this week?
Part of Bubba's success is having a game that works at certain courses. Eight of his twelve PGA Tour wins have come from just three golf courses; he has two wins at Augusta National, three at TPC at River Highlands, and three at Riviera CC.
Why is he so good at at specific venues, specifically Riviera? He's long off the tee, which is an advantage at almost any golf course, and has proven specifically important at Riviera over the years. He typically hits a fade off the tee, which as we discussed earlier, has been a common shot for champions at this event.
Going into this event, he places Top 15 in both Driving Distance and SG Putting, has shown good form in 2020 so far with a T6 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open, and a T3 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and even more importantly, like in his previous three wins at this event, he isn't being payed by Volvik.
Go to the 3:21 mark of this video to see a club twirl during the final round of Bubba's win in 2018, that you wouldn't believe came from Bubba Watson.
He's certainly not the longest hitter, nor the best putter on Tour, but it has been a confident start to the year for the Spaniard. With a strong showing in the European Tour's Desert Swing, with finishes of T8, T23 and T6, in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Saudi Arabia respectively, Sergio emerged with a scoring average of 69.50 from 12 rounds, making him eighth overall in scoring average on the European Tour for players with more than one tournament this season.
Garcia is playing solid golf, and with Ryder Cup points up for grabs, expect the good golf not just to continue, but for the Spaniard's game to get even better over the next few weeks.
It's become a cliche during tournament broadcast's for commentators to say something along the lines of, 'Jon Rahm just doesn't have a weak category.' Banal as that may be, it rings true when searching for a potential winner.
So far on the PGA Tour this season, Rahm is gaining .356 strokes per round around the green, .648 strokes per round putting, .488 strokes on approach to the green, and .621 strokes off the tee, which all adds up to Rahm being ranked 5th on the PGA Tour for Strokes Gained: Total.
He's without a win in 2020 (four events) so far, making it three months since his last trophy, which is like two and half years in Jon Rahm time.
10th Hole at Riviera CC - Jon Cavalier/LinksGems
Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, John Rahm, Patrick Cantlay and Dustin Johnson are all in attendance, and it is thus tough to envisage a future in which none of them are on the prowl come Sunday. With all of the aforementioned crew on site, accompanied by the likes of Tiger Woods, Xander Schauffele, and Justin Rose, this marks the strongest field of any tournament this year so far.
Casting an eye outside of the World's Top-10 however, viewers will find layers and layers of potential winners at Riviera.
Bubba Watson has won the event three times since 2014, and is showing signs of recapturing his form in 2020.
JB Holmes, the defending champion, has placed inside of the Top-20 in all of his last three events.
Sergio Garcia, Tony Finau, Abraham Ancer, Marc Leishman, Matthew Fitzpatrick... the list of players showing attention-grabbing form in 2020 goes on, and on; how on Earth does anybody pick a winner from this?
It might be worth starting at the top; Rory McIlroy is officially the number one player in the world once more, following a five year absence from the top of the pops. The 2019 PGA Tour Player of the Year leapfrogged Brooks Koepka on Monday, and he'll be out to claim that spot as his own.
Two players can, however, take the crown in the immediate aftermath of Rory's coronation. John Rahm, who is as hot as a bubbling cauldron, and Brooks Koepka, who I would imagine is going to have the golf equivalent of 'court-vision' for the next week.
Rahm doesn't look like stuttering, and certainly has a royal claim to the throne. He hasn't finished outside of the Top-10 in any of his last six starts, including two wins, and two runner-up finishes. Sunday's and Jon Rahm are becoming synonymous with one another, and with the standard of golf, and excitement he brings to the TV screen, that's something we could all get accustomed to.
The other challenger for Rory's belt is the recently toppled number one, Brooks Koepka. If there is anything we know about Brooks, it's that being toppled is not something that sits well with him. Perhaps the most exciting man in golf right now (on and off the course), don't expect Brooks' recent knee injury to hold him back from challenging for his dominion back.
Away from the drama of the World Rankings, several other players fall into the discussion of coming out on top of this star-studded field. With this in mind, what has made a winner at this event in the past?
Riviera CC typically places high stock on driving distance, and relatively little importance on driving accuracy. In other words, bomb and gouger's typically do well, while short and straight players have a historically harder battle. This isn't atypical for most PGA Tour venues.
One component of Riviera CC that does venture from the mean is the significance of a strong short game. Strokes Gained: Around the Green, and Strokes Gained: Putting strongly correlate to overall performance at this event, more so than at other Tour stops.
From looking back at the list of champions at Riviera over the last decade, a common occurrence reveals itself; hitting a high fade off the tee seems to be common trait among winners. JB Holmes, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson all have that shot in the bag.
It will certainly be an entertaining week of golf. Riviera CC is one of the most architecturally interesting courses the professionals will play all year; I could sit and watch them play the famous Par-4 tenth hole for four days straight. With that in mind, who should we expect to challenge for the title this week?
Bubba Watson
Getty Images
Part of Bubba's success is having a game that works at certain courses. Eight of his twelve PGA Tour wins have come from just three golf courses; he has two wins at Augusta National, three at TPC at River Highlands, and three at Riviera CC.
Why is he so good at at specific venues, specifically Riviera? He's long off the tee, which is an advantage at almost any golf course, and has proven specifically important at Riviera over the years. He typically hits a fade off the tee, which as we discussed earlier, has been a common shot for champions at this event.
Going into this event, he places Top 15 in both Driving Distance and SG Putting, has shown good form in 2020 so far with a T6 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open, and a T3 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and even more importantly, like in his previous three wins at this event, he isn't being payed by Volvik.
Go to the 3:21 mark of this video to see a club twirl during the final round of Bubba's win in 2018, that you wouldn't believe came from Bubba Watson.
Sergio Garcia
Photo by European Tour
Call this one a hunch.He's certainly not the longest hitter, nor the best putter on Tour, but it has been a confident start to the year for the Spaniard. With a strong showing in the European Tour's Desert Swing, with finishes of T8, T23 and T6, in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Saudi Arabia respectively, Sergio emerged with a scoring average of 69.50 from 12 rounds, making him eighth overall in scoring average on the European Tour for players with more than one tournament this season.
Garcia is playing solid golf, and with Ryder Cup points up for grabs, expect the good golf not just to continue, but for the Spaniard's game to get even better over the next few weeks.
Jon Rahm
Getty Images
I already mentioned that he hasn't finished outside the Top 10 in six straight events. In a career with less than 100 professional starts, Rahm has nine wins; if he is anywhere near his best, there will be very little anyone can do to get in the way of Riviera becoming number ten.It's become a cliche during tournament broadcast's for commentators to say something along the lines of, 'Jon Rahm just doesn't have a weak category.' Banal as that may be, it rings true when searching for a potential winner.
So far on the PGA Tour this season, Rahm is gaining .356 strokes per round around the green, .648 strokes per round putting, .488 strokes on approach to the green, and .621 strokes off the tee, which all adds up to Rahm being ranked 5th on the PGA Tour for Strokes Gained: Total.
He's without a win in 2020 (four events) so far, making it three months since his last trophy, which is like two and half years in Jon Rahm time.
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